


The Final Word

by ActualHurry



Series: Letters from a Renegade: Epilogue [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Lore Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 04:58:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17595056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualHurry/pseuds/ActualHurry
Summary: Shin makes a decision.(Set after "V: Echoes Followed by Silence".)





	The Final Word

**Author's Note:**

> This series will contain a lot of references to my previous series, "A Drifter's Gambit: Unabridged." I highly recommend reading that first, but if you want to jump right into this, I respect your decision. I too want to heedlessly devour any Shin/Drifter content that I see, without regard for rules or regulations.
> 
> Also, this contains The Draw exotic quest spoilers. D'oh.

Shin didn’t start chasing the Drifter because he thought it would lead anywhere worthwhile... personally speaking. He chased him because the opportunity arose and, as all other Hunters, Shin was an opportunist. Getting Gambit up and running was a good enough cause to have him frequenting the top of the City wall, sliding under that grate, visiting the Derelict, patrolling possible arenas. When he hadn’t been at the Drifter’s side, brainstorming things up (and kissing against walls and dragging each other to privacy), he’d been left with a lot of time to think. Idle hands and whatnot. Except that even with busy hands, his mind hadn’t been totally occupied.

Somewhere along the line, there was a paradigm shift. Somewhere along the line, he’d started walking a different path. He’d found a line and begun to tread it.

And it wasn’t the Drifter that’d caused this. Not directly. Sure, he’d contributed some. Minor amounts of change with every collision, in increments, in pieces. But it was mostly thanks to Gambit – and the crowd that Gambit attracted, and one such person from that crowd. Shin had seen the pragmatic approach, the reality of it.

Once, he would’ve raised his gun to fire without a second thought.

Not anymore.

Time went by after he dropped that last bit of writing off with Drifter. Left it there to let him read. It’d been a good while ago that Shin had started feeling some angry part of him splinter away. With that last letter done and delivered – _you and me? We'll be the ones hearing their confessions_ – he thought the final jagged edge of wrath might have finally gone. He needed time, though. Needed to really ruminate on it, to make that heavy decision and feel comfortable sticking by it.

“What next?” asked his Ghost once they were far and gone away from the City. It looked at him, floating there with its one bright eye. Wondering. It was old. It’d seen more than just him. Shin got the feeling sometimes that when it asked things like that, it was waiting on a reply Jaren would’ve given.

Well, Shin wasn’t Jaren. And wasn’t that a relief for the first damn time.

“One more thing I gotta do,” Shin said. He patted The Last Word in its holster. “Reckon it’s the right move.”

 

From a distance, it was clear to him what the Guardian was doing. And what the Drifter was doing, albeit with a bit more clarity. That artifact was a dangerous thing, a malevolent chess piece in an ancient game that Shin had once played. But that was a recent break from the status quo. He was patient as he’d ever been – watchful and attentive, following after that brilliant spark of Light here and there while they attended to errands that Drifter sent their way. If there was trepidation in their heart, it wasn’t known by their footsteps. Shin admired them.

And perhaps… perhaps he saw a bit of himself there too. Fighting against that selfish anger, that righteous, burning hurt… and trying to be a hero instead.

Shin knew the path that the Drifter was sending that Guardian towards. He knew it well; he wondered if the Drifter would have laughed or gone steely, had he realized just how much more Shin could’ve added to his repertoire of knowledge. Too late now, but Shin’s bet was that he wouldn’t’ve liked that very much. Getting outdone by somebody. Somebody like him, at that.

The Last Word was heavy in his grip, no matter how loosely he held it. Waiting up here, kneeling on this rock such a deep distance into the Tangled Shore. He watched Enkaar below in the shadows of his small overlook. Watched him piece together a sad mimicry of that awful gun that’d ruined so many. Shin had half a mind to shoot the Acolyte on the spot. End this game.

But it wouldn’t be right, if this wasn’t going to be his fight any longer. He had to set it up for the runner-up. He had to play Jaren’s role in the way he best knew how. It wasn’t Jaren’s story, it wasn’t a tale of revenge, it wasn’t the ballad of old anymore.

Enkaar disappeared deeper into the cavern. Shin waited. He looked down at his gun. The Last Word should’ve looked battered by its work and age, but even in this darkness he could see the gold trim of it shining, enticing. Reflecting the small amount of light available to it. _Tex Mechanica,_ engraved on the barrel, with that pattern that’d grown so familiar to him. The sleepless nights he’d spent running his bare thumb along the etching, committing it to memory. The tireless days he’d spent trailing prey, content with the weight of the gun on his hip.

Next to him, his Ghost appeared, exacting its quiet judgment on his choice. Where once he would’ve been concerned with finding disapproval in its single gaze, now he was wise enough not to pick that fight. He was surprised, all the same, to see his Ghost nodding just the one time at him.

Shin transmatted his helmet off and away. It felt like parting with an old friend. Maybe it was the final nail in the coffin.

He pressed his lips to the side of the barrel.

“End of the line,” he murmured against the warm metal, though the gun hadn’t fired yet today. “Ever yours.”

Shin walked the long way back up and out. Jaren was lucky to have managed to find someone to take his place. Shin was even luckier, considering the number of conversations he’d come outta still breathing. Two legends, one having taken the other’s place. Well, he didn’t need to die to pass the baton. He’d spent a long time surviving. Maybe it was time to live a little.

By the time the light had started filtering into the cave from above him, he’d come up with a good idea of exactly how he wanted to go about living.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. :) Keep your eyes up, Guardians...


End file.
